United States v. Lopez

E7030

U.S. Supreme Court case landmark case

United States v. Lopez is a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case that marked the first time in decades the Court struck down a federal law for exceeding Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause, signaling a revival of limits on federal regulatory authority.

Try in SPARQL Jump to: Surface forms Statements Referenced by

All labels observed (5)

Label	Occurrences
United States v. Lopez canonical	15
United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995)	2
The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 exceeds Congress’s authority under the Commerce Clause	1
United States v. Alfonso Lopez, Jr.	1
United States v. Morrison	1

Statements (50)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	U.S. Supreme Court case ⓘ landmark case ⓘ
appealedFrom	United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ⓘ
areaOfLaw	Commerce Clause jurisprudence ⓘ constitutional law ⓘ federalism ⓘ
arguedDate	1994-11-08 ⓘ
chiefJusticeAtDecision	William H. Rehnquist ⓘ
citation	514 U.S. 549 ⓘ
concurringOpinionBy	Anthony M. Kennedy ⓘ Clarence Thomas ⓘ
constitutionalProvisionInterpreted	Commerce Clause ⓘ Necessary and Proper Clause ⓘ Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ surface form: Tenth Amendment (federalism principles)
country	United States of America ⓘ surface form: United States
court	Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ
decadeContext	Rehnquist Court federalism revival ⓘ
decisionDate	1995-04-26 ⓘ
definedCategoryOfCommercePower	activities that substantially affect interstate commerce ⓘ channels of interstate commerce ⓘ instrumentalities of interstate commerce, or persons or things in interstate commerce ⓘ
dissentingOpinionBy	David H. Souter ⓘ John Paul Stevens ⓘ Ruth Bader Ginsburg ⓘ Stephen G. Breyer ⓘ
fullName	United States v. Lopez self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: United States v. Alfonso Lopez, Jr.
holding	United States v. Lopez self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 exceeds Congress’s authority under the Commerce Clause
issue	Whether Congress exceeded its Commerce Clause power by enacting the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 ⓘ
joinedByInMajority	Anthony M. Kennedy ⓘ Antonin Scalia ⓘ Clarence Thomas ⓘ Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ
jurisdiction	federal ⓘ
lawStruckDown	Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, 18 U.S.C. § 922(q) ⓘ
majorityOpinionBy	William H. Rehnquist ⓘ
originatingCourt	United States District Court for the Western District of Texas ⓘ
petitioner	United States of America ⓘ surface form: United States
reasoningSummary	Allowing regulation of non-economic activity like gun possession would convert the Commerce Clause into a general police power ⓘ Possession of a gun in a local school zone is not an economic activity that substantially affects interstate commerce ⓘ The statute contained no jurisdictional element tying the regulated activity to interstate commerce ⓘ
reporter	United States Reports ⓘ
respondent	Alfonso Lopez, Jr. ⓘ
significance	Clarified categories of activity Congress may regulate under the Commerce Clause ⓘ First time in decades the Supreme Court invalidated a federal statute as exceeding Congress’s Commerce Clause power ⓘ Marked a revival of judicially enforced limits on federal regulatory authority ⓘ
subsequentCitationIn	Gonzales v. Raich ⓘ United States v. Morrison ⓘ
volume	514 ⓘ
vote	5–4 ⓘ
year	1995 ⓘ

How these facts were elicited

The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.

Instruction

You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10.

# Requirements
- If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list.
- If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list.
- Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf".
- Do not get too wordy.
- Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.

Input

Subject: United States v. Lopez
Description of subject: United States v. Lopez is a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case that marked the first time in decades the Court struck down a federal law for exceeding Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause, signaling a revival of limits on federal regulatory authority.

Referenced by (20)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Commerce Clause → limitedByCase → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

this entity surface form: United States v. Morrison

Gonzales v. Raich → relatedCase → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

United States v. Lopez → fullName → United States v. Lopez self-linksurface differs ⓘ

this entity surface form: United States v. Alfonso Lopez, Jr.

United States v. Lopez → holding → United States v. Lopez self-linksurface differs ⓘ

this entity surface form: The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 exceeds Congress’s authority under the Commerce Clause

substantial effects doctrine → limitedByCase → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

William H. Rehnquist → notableCaseParticipation → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution → citedIn → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

United States v. Morrison → relatedTo → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, 18 U.S.C. § 922(q) → notableCase → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

subject surface form: Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990

Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, 18 U.S.C. § 922(q) → challengedIn → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

subject surface form: Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990

this entity surface form: United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995)

Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, 18 U.S.C. § 922(q) → heldUnconstitutionalIn → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

subject surface form: Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990

Alfonso Lopez, Jr. → partyTo → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

subject surface form: Alfonso Lopez Jr.

Alfonso Lopez, Jr. → caseCitation → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

subject surface form: Alfonso Lopez Jr.

this entity surface form: United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995)

Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution → keyCase → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

Rehnquist Court → landmarkDecision → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

United States, Petitioner v. Antonio J. Morrison et al. → relatedToCase → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

subject surface form: United States v. Morrison

Supreme Court affirmed reversal of conviction → refersToCase → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

Supreme Court affirmed reversal of conviction → caseName → United States v. Lopez ⓘ

United States Supreme Court cases → hasPart → United States v. Lopez ⓘ